Brown's Cafe

Brown's Cafe is where the Covered Market reveals its working character. This is not a brunch spot with avocado toast and flat whites — it's a proper greasy spoon serving full English breakfasts, bacon rolls, and strong tea to the people who keep the market running. If you want to see the Covered Market at its most authentic, sit here at half past eight in the morning.

The menu is traditional British cafe fare done without fuss. Eggs cooked to order, sausages with some actual flavour, toast from a proper toaster. The prices are fair, the portions honest, and the atmosphere is the unselfconscious warmth of a place that exists to feed people rather than to be photographed. It fills up quickly at breakfast, so arrive early or be prepared to wait.